description:
As part of an ongoing collaboration with Ali Momeni (University of
Minnesota), I am helping to
develop a new instrument
for the creation of experimental music theater. Inspired by our
previous collaboration (Table
Setting), this environment
uses a portable “table-top” construction to integrate audio, video,
analog and digital sensors, and computer-based control of external
media (i.e. musical robotics). This environment
will enable the composition of a series of new works exploring
interactive computer music, intermodal relationships, and
collaborative performance on a visually stimulating and
technologically sophisticated platform. We are now in the process
of creating the first compositions for the liminal surface - the first
versions of which were completed in the summer of 2009.

These
interactive tables allow for a manner of tabletop musical theater that
combines contemporary music and theater, performative sculpture,
percussive musical practice, and interactive software-enhanced
performance and builds on an existing collaborative practice between
Momeni and Bithell. Known as the liminal surface, these
table-top miniature stages are outfitted with sensors and actuators as
well as sound and video hardware. The tables are designed
to accommodate a wide range of sensors that provide our specialized
real-time audio/visual software with information about our physical
gestures.

Similarly, the tables allow connectivity with a wide range of
actuators (i.e. electromechanical components like motors and solenoids
that are integrated into small moving sculptures). These
actuators are controlled by our specialized software according to
precomposed rules as well as interactive translations of our
gestures. Concurrently, contact microphones attached to the
table and small pin-hole cameras that can be positioned around the
table allow the performers to present a rich and immersive
audio/visual perspective of this miniature stage.

These inputs (sensors, microphones, cameras) and outputs
(actuators, loud-speakers, video projectors), together with the
specialized real-time software we create to connect these
components, allow us to compose a wide range of pieces that explore
theatrical performance with an interactive audiovisual instrument. The
above technology creates a rich world of theatrical, musical and
real-time interactive possibilities for performance.

The strength of the liminal surface
as a performance instrument lies in
its combination of physical objects that autonomously take on
musical and theatrical roles, and the power of the performers to
theatrically intervene into this autonomy. Another
important performative strength is our ability to use audio and video
amplification and perspective to instill musical and theatrical
meaning into the actions performed by the table's machinations.
In this regard, the commissioned work approaches the newly
emergying genre of Live Cinema, where performers play the role
musician and visual artist, as well as actor and
cinematographer.

Portions of the work on the liminal
surface has been supported
by a Faculty Research Grant from the University of North Texas, a
Graduate Division Faculty Summer Research Fellowship from the
University of Minnesota, a McKnight Summer Fellowship, and a commission
from the Ammerman Center for Arts and Technology at Connecticut
College.